Public Utilities Street Works Act 1950 (repealed 1.1.1993)

1 Purposes of the street works code, and works the execution of which is to be regulated thereby. E+W+S

(1) Sections three to fourteen of this Act and the First, Second and Third Schedules thereto (in this Act referred to as “the street works code”) shall have effect in relation to powers to which

this section applies, that is to say, any statutory power to execute undertakers’ works in a [F1 street][F1 road] except a power conferred for purposes of a railway undertaking or a tramway undertaking, with a view to—

(a) providing a uniform set of provisions for the protection of authorities, bodies and persons concerned in the mode of exercise of such powers as having the control or management of [F2 streets][F2 roads], or of sewers, drains or tunnels, transport undertakings or bridges; and

(b) enabling powers to which this section applies, so far as they are powers exercisable in a [F3 street which is a maintainable highway or is prospectively a maintainable highway][F3 public road or prospective public road], to be exercised, in accordance with the said code, in controlled land as defined in the First Schedule to this Act.

(2) In this Act the expression “undertakers’ works” means works (including works executed or to be executed on behalf of the Crown) for any purposes other than road purposes, being works of any of the following kinds, that is to say—

(a) Placing apparatus.

Inspecting, maintaining, adjusting, repairing, altering or renewing apparatus.

Changing the position of apparatus or removing it.

(b) Breaking up or opening a [F4 street][F4 road] or controlled land for the purposes of works mentioned in paragraph (a) of this subsection, and tunnelling or boring under a [F4 street][F4 road] or controlled land for those purposes, breaking up or opening a sewer, drain or tunnel for those purposes, and other works requisite for or incidental to those purposes.

[F5 X1 (3) In this Act the expression “street” means (without prejudice to the provisions of subsection (1) of section thirty-eight of this Act) any length of a highway (other than a waterway), road, lane, footway, alley or passage, any square or court, and any length of land laid out as a way whether it is for the time being formed as a way or not, irrespective of whether the highway, road or other thing in question is a thoroughfare or not.

(4) In this Act—

(a) the expression “maintainable highway” means a highway [F6 which for the purposes of the M1 Highways Act 1980 is a highway maintainable at the public expense]; and

(b) references to a street that is prospectively a maintainable highway are to a street which, whether being a highway or not, is declared likely to become a maintainable highway in a declaration made by the [F7 appropriate local authority][F7 local highway authority] under the Second Schedule to this Act and registered in the register of local land charges thereunder.]

[F5 X1 (3) In this Act the expression “road” means (without prejudice to section 38(1) of this Act) any way (other than a substitute road made under section 74(1) of the M2 Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 or a waterway) whether or not there is over it a public right of passage and whether or not it is for the time being formed as a way; and the expression includes a square or court, and any part of a road.

(4) In this Act—

(a) the expression “public road” has the same meaning as in the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984; and

(b) references to a prospective public road are to a road which is declared likely to become a public road in a declaration made by the local roads authority under the Second Schedule to this Act and registered in the register kept by them under paragraph 2 of that Schedule.]

(5) In this Act the expression “code-regulated works” means undertakers’ works executed or proposed to be executed—

(a) in exercise of a power to which this section applies, being a power in relation to which the street works code has effect having regard to the provisions of section fifteen of this Act as to the time for the taking effect of that code in relation to different powers, and

(b) either in a [F8 street][F8 road] in exercise of that power, or in controlled land in exercise of that power together with an authorisation given under the First Schedule to this Act,

but excluding works which were works in hand within the meaning of subsection (4) of the said section fifteen immediately before the time from which the street works code took effect in relation to that power.

Editorial Information

X1 S. 1(3)(4) commencing “In this Act the expression “road”” substituted for s. 1(3)(4) commencing (S.) “In this Act the expression “street”” by Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (c. 54, SIF 108), Sch. 9 para. 39(2)(c)

Textual Amendments

F1 Word “road” substituted (S.) for word “street” by Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (c. 54, SIF 108), Sch. 9 para. 39(2)(a)(i)

F2 Word “roads” substituted (S.) for word “streets” by Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (c. 54, SIF 108), Sch. 9 para. 39(2)(a)(ii)

F3 Words “public road or prospective public road” substituted (S.) for “street which is a maintainable highway or is prospectively a maintainable highway” by Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (c. 54, SIF 108), Sch. 9 para. 39(2)(a)(iii)

F4 Word “road” substituted (S.) for word “street” by Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (c. 54, SIF 108), Sch. 9 para. 39(2)(b)

F5 S. 1(3)(4) commencing “In this Act the expression “road”” substituted (S.) for s. 1(3)(4) commencing “In this Act the expression “street”” by Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (c. 54, SIF 108), Sch. 9 para. 39(2)(c)

F6 Words substituted by virtue of Highways Act 1980 (c. 66, SIF 59), Sch. 23 para. 22

F7 Words “local highway authority” substituted (E.W.) for words “appropriate local authority” by Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70, SIF 81:1), Sch. 21 para. 98(1)

F8 Word “road” substituted (S.) for word “street” by Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (c. 54, SIF 108), Sch. 9 para. 39(2)(d)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 1 excluded by Highways Act 1980 (c. 66, SIF 59), s. 181(6)

Marginal Citations

M1 1980 c. 66(59).

M2 1984 c. 54(108).